C2 man under with a variety of personnel packages to match up is in the Steelers' immediate future. Bostic and Matthew Thomas are perfect guys to play that middle zone drop and Burns will either adapt to not making mental errors, or he will be replaced readily by Sutton. They couldn't do this last year when Mitchell lacked the ability to shade near the line but still get back to two deep or vice versa.

Against a different team, like NE, they play big dime, with multiple safeties.

NE's run game is designed to throw fresh bodies out there (they have like 10 decent backs on the roster) and attack the edges and change pace inside. It works because of the threat of Gronk. If you match up big with a LB, then they run the quick RBs to the edges and on screens. If you match up with a smaller player, then Gronk typically kills you in the middle.

I still maintain that Brian freaking Allen is the man to mitigate the damage from Gronk. Gronk will still get his but Allen can physically match up well enough to make it hard work. A 4-3 front, an off-ball LB, Allen on Gronk, and 5 DBs. You've still got 3 LB types on the field and could have three or 4 DBs the size of Deion Jones.

C2 man under with a variety of personnel packages to match up is in the Steelers' immediate future. Bostic and Matthew Thomas are perfect guys to play that middle zone drop and Burns will either adapt to not making mental errors, or he will be replaced readily by Sutton. They couldn't do this last year when Mitchell lacked the ability to shade near the line but still get back to two deep or vice versa.

Against a different team, like NE, they play big dime, with multiple safeties.

NE's run game is designed to throw fresh bodies out there (they have like 10 decent backs on the roster) and attack the edges and change pace inside. It works because of the threat of Gronk. If you match up big with a LB, then they run the quick RBs to the edges and on screens. If you match up with a smaller player, then Gronk typically kills you in the middle.

I still maintain that Brian freaking Allen is the man to mitigate the damage from Gronk. Gronk will still get his but Allen can physically match up well enough to make it hard work. A 4-3 front, an off-ball LB, Allen on Gronk, and 5 DBs. You've still got 3 LB types on the field and could have three or 4 DBs the size of Deion Jones.

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_________________"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire

C2 man under with a variety of personnel packages to match up is in the Steelers' immediate future. Bostic and Matthew Thomas are perfect guys to play that middle zone drop and Burns will either adapt to not making mental errors, or he will be replaced readily by Sutton. They couldn't do this last year when Mitchell lacked the ability to shade near the line but still get back to two deep or vice versa.

Against a different team, like NE, they play big dime, with multiple safeties.

NE's run game is designed to throw fresh bodies out there (they have like 10 decent backs on the roster) and attack the edges and change pace inside. It works because of the threat of Gronk. If you match up big with a LB, then they run the quick RBs to the edges and on screens. If you match up with a smaller player, then Gronk typically kills you in the middle.

I still maintain that Brian freaking Allen is the man to mitigate the damage from Gronk. Gronk will still get his but Allen can physically match up well enough to make it hard work. A 4-3 front, an off-ball LB, Allen on Gronk, and 5 DBs. You've still got 3 LB types on the field and could have three or 4 DBs the size of Deion Jones.

I'm in the minority that a lot of Burns issues with releasing or not releasing coverage were because of Mitchells inability to be consistent with the "handoff". Yeah, Burns has some work to do- but it just seems like he was expecting help on some of those deep passes and realized too late that help wasn't coming- either by design or lack of talent. I expect experienced coaching to clean that part up this year.

Training camp is going to show how far Allen has come. He's got all the raw talent (size and speed) to be a good player. Hopefully, he has learned enough about the position from the new coaching staff. Having just a big guy on Gronk (or any talented two way TE) isn't enough- he has to have some ball skills to make those lob passes more of a 50/50 thing and he has to be able to fight off blocks and tackle RBs like a safety. Those guys are rare in this league, hopefully, Allen is one.

_________________No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does, in the end, is what he intended to do all along- Cus D'Amato

I know there are a lot of pessimistic views on what the defense is going to be this year but me, I am hopeful. Sometimes change can bring about a surprising amount of growth. And this defense is undergoing a tremendous amount of change.

Look at all of the players gone from last year's opening day roster.

James HarrisonArt MoatsWillie GayMike MitchellRobert GoldenJJ Wilcox

Shazier is on IR and Sean Spence was cut. McCullers was resigned but no guarantee he makes the roster. Coty Sensabaugh probably has a tough time making the roster. LJ Fort could find himself replaced by Matthew Thomas perhaps. There could be as much as 10 players from last year that are not on this year's 26 man defensive roster. That might be a player turnover as high as 38%.

And then the coaching changes. John Mitchell out, Karl Dunbar in. Carnell Lake out, Tom Bradley in. And if Joey Porter or Jerry Olsavsky thought they were secure in their jobs, well, now that they watched two of their defensive coaches replaced, I am sure they are paying attention now.

So, yeah, I am optimistic, all of this change has got to be a good thing. I can't see how we will see the same old, same old anymore. The coaches and players that were responsible for much of that same old are not around anymore. There are new players in town, new sheriffs in town, things have to change for the better, don't they?

I know there are a lot of pessimistic views on what the defense is going to be this year but me, I am hopeful. Sometimes change can bring about a surprising amount of growth. And this defense is undergoing a tremendous amount of change.

Look at all of the players gone from last year's opening day roster.

James HarrisonArt MoatsWillie GayMike MitchellRobert GoldenJJ Wilcox

Shazier is on IR and Sean Spence was cut. McCullers was resigned but no guarantee he makes the roster. Coty Sensabaugh probably has a tough time making the roster. LJ Fort could find himself replaced by Matthew Thomas perhaps. There could be as much as 10 players from last year that are not on this year's 26 man defensive roster. That might be a player turnover as high as 38%.

And then the coaching changes. John Mitchell out, Karl Dunbar in. Carnell Lake out, Tom Bradley in. And if Joey Porter or Jerry Olsavsky thought they were secure in their jobs, well, now that they watched two of their defensive coaches replaced, I am sure they are paying attention now.

So, yeah, I am optimistic, all of this change has got to be a good thing. I can't see how we will see the same old, same old anymore. The coaches and players that were responsible for much of that same old are not around anymore. There are new players in town, new sheriffs in town, things have to change for the better, don't they?

There may be some new deputies in town, but that old sheriff remains...and that is the main problem.

I do know that before that New England game, that the numbers were skewed even more heavily towards zone. That was like the watershed event, the man coverage in the NE game and then in the Houston game you had Joe Haden following DeAndre Hopkins no matter where he lined up, flipping CBs, etc.

Even teams that are great at man to man coverage, no team does it the majority of the time. We are talking 40-45% for man coverage usually. The problem we have had is that we have had years where we are at 30, 25, 20%, and worse we just didn't do it in key situations, giving up soft cushions, allowing key first downs to be completed.

I think Dunbar and Bradley are going to really transform those position groups and allow Butler to finally thrive as our defensive coordinator.

Without Ryan Shazier in the lineup, we saw just how susceptible the Steelers’ run defense could be. They got manhandled by a lackluster Jaguars offensive line in the playoffs with their linebackers struggling to shed blocks all game. They’ve remained nearly status quo since then with linebacker Jon Bostic being the only change.

I'm concerned about the ILB position with Bostic and Dirty Red. They are improvements over Spence but still aren't the answer unless they really pick up their game. Tomlin has been mentioning Red but he wasn't very good at shedding blocks. New coaching will cure it?